Marketing Plan: ServiKali - Thesis Example

Marketing Plan – ServiKali of Table of Contents I. Marketing Plan 3 References 10 Appendix 11 I. Marketing Plan Market research The market research for this service is necessary to understand the present market situation and also to estimate market demand for a new product to be launched. The study shall act as a guide to the business for carrying out its business operations and formulating strategies within Columbia (Mortimer, 2002). The market is the rural population in Columbia who has little access to banking and internet services owing to their location. This makes them incapable of receiving cash and online money transfers from friends and relative abroad. ServiKali aims to make available the money as well the proved the users of its service with the ability use the money as desired. This unique service shall target people who are settled abroad from Columbia and want to send money back home for various purposes. The stratus is that section of people who have their relative and friends settled abroad and stay in distant locations of Columbia. These people also do not have access to the internet or banking services. Market research The paper carries out secondary research analysis for the purpose of this survey. The product and the company are relatively new (Weiner, 2000). Other companies in the business of international money transfer only provide for transfer and delivery of money. ServiKali aims to deliver services instead of money and put the business into a service perspective and give a new niche to its people. The paper makes use of journals, web and books for the purpose of carrying out this research activity. Economics The total size of the market is difficult to estimate but it shall encompass anybody who is in need of foreign remittance and some service associated with this money received. The total population of Columbia is 47.1 million people and the users of this service are spread out but mostly the older generation and those who are distantly located (Tradingeconomics. 2014). It is estimated that about 70% of the country’s population lives on 7% of the land area of Columbia (Tradingeconomics. 2014). The service provided by ServiKali is meant for the 30% distant and rurally located people (Tradingeconomics. 2014). The demand for money transfers is still untapped and stores a huge potential because the market for international money transfers has been restricted with banks alone. New media for international monetary transactions is expected to have a higher demand. Barriers to Entry within the money transfer market are 1. Long time associated with Consumer Acceptance and Brand Recognition 2. High Costs of Marketing 3. High training skills required The company has an established brand name and consumer acceptance in US. It has to invest largely in marketing efforts to create its brand recognition in Columbia. Also, investment needs to be provided on training of company staff that shall specialize in provision of different types of services. The company technology shall require ServiKali to invest in higher IT skills to update itself to the new technology. Change in government regulations would attract higher compliance costs and stricter regulations. Change in the economy shall have no direct impact yet, it is expected that business shall boost with the economy. Change in industry shall invite higher costs to beat competitive forces that have cause the change in the industry. Product The product shall be an online service for money transfer that is aimed at helping the weaker section of the society. ServiKali is an online money transfer portal where distant relatives and friends of people in need of money transfer funds to help them for their specific needs. The money transfer activity from any nation shall have the objective of use of money attached to it. The agents of ServiKali would be able to access and get the money to use it for fulfilling the specific need of the people involved. Features and Benefits The service provided by ServiKali shall provide assistance of their staff for Product purchases: these product purchases shall include all assistance with making purchases as per requirement of the client ranging from land and property to inaccessible items in the regions meant for survival (Ferrell & Hartline, 2010). Arrange for Hospital benefits and services: This service shall include help and assistance provided to clients for immediate surgery and inaccessible medication requirements. Help with educational assistance: this service shall help with admission requirement in schools to provision of books and necessities to students. The teams shall also work to make arrangements for giving university examinations and competitive examinations if required. Help with resolution of legal matters: these matters revolve around legal issues that need to be dealt with for small firms and also for individuals. The company shall only make arrangement for lawyers and consultation. It shall not be legally involved in the proceedings. All activities that are pertaining to social service and helping the needy shall encompass within the company’s services as per the discretion and ruling of the board. The service of providing assistance to those who need shall also provide after sales service like receipt for purchases made along with warranties of the products and report back for progress and status of work done or service provided. Customers The target customers for the money transfer company, ServiKali shall be all people in Columbia who have little access to computers or banks. This implies that the ideal target customer set shall be located in all the rural locations in Columbia who do not have reach of banks and computers shall encompass as a target customer set for his business. These set of people shall possess unique characteristics like low level of computer knowledge, lack of mobility to access banks and computers, distant and rural housing and lack of infrastructural facilities to access foreign money transfers (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2004). The service is directed towards helping and providing service to those people with the help of foreign serviced money and caters to their needs. The poor and needy shall also comprise of this customer set. It is expected that such people who will seek services shall belong to old ages and shall have relatives and friends in distant places for which they shall seek services of ServiKali. Age: Ideally 19-45 years. The selection of this age group has been done behind the rationale that they are the most tech savvy set of people and are more inclined to use international fund transfer. Additionally, this is the group of people who stay outside Columbia for work related purposes. Gender: Male and Female Location: Rural and Distant places of Columbia who have their friends and relatives settled abroad shall be the beneficiaries of this service because these people cannot use the money to fulfill their different needs. They also have little access to banks and online services for sourcing money for spending. Income level: High because these people are settled abroad for the purpose of earning high incomes and want to send the money back home to their friend and family for different purposes. Social class and occupation: Retired, housewives and Specially Challenged people Education: High levels of education for the people who are sending the money to Columbia and low levels of education of the people who cannot use the internet or banks for getting the money and using it For business customers, the demographic factors might be: Industry (or portion of an industry): Start-up companies located in distant rural areas of Columbia Location: Rural and city outskirts Size of firm: Small and Micro industries Quality, technology, and price preferences: Low technology levels, private firms established for providing occupation for the weak and backward sections of society, providing items of handicrafts or such vocational industries. Competition The main competition for ServiKali shall come from banks that arrange for international money transfers and have a well established market for the service. Other products that shall compete with the provision of service through online money transfers shall come from NGO’s and service agencies who are organized for the purpose of serving the needy shall drive out profits. List your major competitors: 1. Xoom Corporation 2. Western Union 3. PayPal Western Union is a global leader in terms of service of providing for online money transfers and shall compete in its geographical scope for money transfers. PayPal is the online money transfer service for online shopping. This shall provide competition in the purchase service undertaken by ServiKali. Xoom concentrates on money transfer from UK alone and is a specialty in the region. ServiKali shall face tough competition in sourcing money transfers from UK from Xoom. Indirect competition is to come from NGOs for individual as well as corporate clients and banks for funding through venture capital in case of small corporate clients. ServiKali is a unique combination of providing international money transfers and also providing the necessary help in concern with the use of money and helping those in need of the service. ServiKali shall aim to market itself as a provider of international money transfers along with establishing itself as a brand meant for the service of its people. Competitive Analysis The paper tries to make a comparative analysis of different factors as to highlight the strengths and weakness of the proposed business activity and also compare it with established players in the business and judge its importance as perceived by the consumer to get a comprehensive overview of the key focus areas of the business activity. 1. Product: the product provided by ServiKali is a unique combination of international money transfer with use of money and provision of service to the user of the transferred money. Competitors in this business like Western union and PayPal have been instrumental only with the money transfer activity. This factor holds prime importance to the consumer. 2. Price: the charges associated with use of service shall be naturally high as compared to simple money transfer activity. Competitors might provide the money transfer service at low prices. ServiKali has to price competitively because it is believed that prices matter to consumers. 3. Quality: ServiKali strives to offer top quality service in delivery of services in order to oust high quality competition offered by money transfer companies like PayPal and Western Union. This shall be done with highly trained staff and establishment of good domestic reach in Columbia. 4. Selection: Selection of services shall be as per the needs and wants of its customers. This shall offer significant competitive advantage because other competitors have single service provision providing fewer opportunities for consumers to choose from a variety of services. 5. Service: the company feels that its services are goo because they cater to a niche category. However, it faces stiff competition from competitors because they have high strength in their core service of money transfer which is of critical importance to consumers. 6. Reliability: ServiKali shall have low reliability because it has just begun services in Columbia and people do not know its roots in USA very well in the nation. Other competitors are established global players and induce high reliability in the minds of the consumer. 7. Stability: The firm has low stability because it does not really have a history to prove stable track record. Other competitors ahave been established for long and ensure high stability in business. 8. Expertise: the new business ensures only low stability because it has huge areas still unexplored in service provision. Such expertise is not of high importance to consumers as perceived because they want more of reliability of service and money transfer rather than expertise in provision of services. 9. Company Reputation: The parent company for ServiKali is well known in USA but it still has to establish its roots in Columbia. Other competitors are quite well known and it is believed that the company lacks strength over this factor which holds low importance in the minds of the consumer. 10. Location: ServiKali is restricted to provision of domestic services but sources money from all over the world. Competitor’s have worldwide availability as well as transfer services. ServiKali is in its nascent stages and has to work its way forwards. 11. Appearance: The company appears weak in terms of lack of structure of services. Competitors have a strong presence in the market and have huge strengths on the online platform. ServiKali has to focus on development of this weakness. 12. Sales Method: the sales method adopted by Servikali can be referred to as its core strength where the use of money transferred provides instant attraction towards the business among the consumers. Competitors in this business work mostly online and limit themselves to money transfer activity only. 13. Credit Policies: Company lacks a credit policy which can be considered to be the strength of the business because it is a service oriented business where the instant availability of money is essential to work forwards with utilization of it. Competitors have policies for use of credit. 14. Advertising: the company has to work over its advertising highly in order to gain awareness. It is a weak area for ServiKali where the competitors have different but successful advertising strategies. 15. Image: The company shares a moderate image among its consumers as its new in the market. Competitors have a strong image and ServiKali has to work on its image to gain greater awareness among its consumers. Therefore, in conclusion, the key strengths associated with ServiKali are its service packages and the bundling of its product ranges. The key weaknesses of ServiKali that it needs to focus in is building brand awareness in Columbia and also increasing global reach for allowing fund transfers from a greater number of nations. References Ferrell, O. C. & Hartline, M. D. (2010). Marketing strategy. 5th ed. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Lovelock, C. & Wirtz, J. (2004). Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy 5/e. London: Prentice Hall. Mortimer, K. (2002). Integrating advertising theories with conceptual models of services advertising. Journal of Services Marketing, 16(5), 460 – 468. Tradingeconomics. (2014). Rural population in Columbia. Retrieved from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/colombia/rural-population-wb-data.html Weiner, B. (2000). Attributional Thoughts about Consumer Behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 27(3), 382-387. Appendix Table 1: Competitive Analysis FACTOR Me Strength Weakness Competitor A: Western union Competitor B: PayPal Importance to Customer Products Unique combination of money transfer with use of money and provision of service 1 Strong with Money Transfer but lack service facilities with money transfer. String Competition for making online purchases of goods but not used by the ones who have little computer access. 1 Price High price associated with service provision along with money transfer service 1 Low prices for money transfer service with widest reach Low price associated with online shopping one can directly shop using PayPal account and no money shall be used in bank transfers and exchanges. 1 Quality The service delivery shall be of top quality with highly trained staff and good domestic reach within the country. 1 Western Union offer top notch service in money transfer and shall provide tough competition with its wide reach PayPal has highest trust and reliability associated with money transfers meant for online shopping n most nations. 2 Selection Selection is based on customers’ needs 1 Just one basic service available for selection Can choose between fund transfers through banks or through online account. 3 Service Good because of niche service 1 High efficiency in core service High efficiency in core service 1 Reliability Low because the firm is new in Columbia 1 High due to established brand name High due to established brand name 1 Stability Low because the firm is new 1 High due to wide presence High due to high acceptance 3 Expertise Low because the business concept is new 1 High owing to high experience and competition Moderate owing to new company with rising brand presence. 3 Company Reputation Not very well known in Columbia, popular in US alone 1 Well known across the globe Well known in the digital shopping platform worldwide 4 Location Worldwide transfers to Columbia 1 Worldwide transfers to and fro Worldwide online transactions to most banks affiliated with PayPal 5 Appearance Weak appearance due to lack of structured set of services 1 Strong appearance and market leadership in money transfer services. Building strong appearance in the online platform 5 Sales Method Strong for providing service in combination with money transfer 1 Mostly Online Mostly Online 5 Credit Policies No credit policy. The service if offered only when money is received. Shall allow transfer using credit card 1 People are allowed to make transfers using credit card Does not allow any transfers using credit card 5 Advertising Needs high advertising to generate service awareness and spread brand name in the new country 1 High brand awareness and high advertising expenses Low advertising and awareness built through business contracts 3 Image Moderate image because the company is new and so is the service 1 Strong brand image with high reliability assured High brand image owing to trusting transactions 4 Read More